Month: October 2008

Many Americans are dissatisfied with how they look. They want to be thinner or have bigger muscles or have larger breasts or have fuller lips. The diet industry, the plastic surgery industry, the fitness industry all make money because people are dissatisfied with how they look. How can you be happy with your looks? As…

Patients generally believe that managed care systems are put in place to restrict their access to care. Many patients believe that physicians who receive capitation compensation will provide less care to their patients than physicians who are paid on a fee-for-service basis. A paper by Fang and Rizzo (2008) investigates whether or not this is really they…

According to Health Affairs, the U.S. spent 16.0% of GDP on health expenditures in 2006. What will we be spending on health care in 2040? Robert Fogel takes a stab at answering this question. He claims that by 2040, the U.S. will spend 29% of GDP on health care in 2040. There are four…

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Apple has donated $100,000 for the No on Prop 8 campaign. Proposition 8 is a California referendum that aims to pass the “Marriage Protection Act” which would outlaw gay marriage. Apple may gain some customers who approve of gay marriage, but most people won’t buy a computer just because Apple…

In April 2006, I reviewed a well-known article which stated that the cost to bring a pharmaceutical to market was $802 million. This included the the cost R&D, clinical trials, failed drugs, and the cost of capial. The estimate was from DiMasi, Hansen and Grabowski (2003). The $802m figure was an updated from DiMasi, Hansen,…